


That Dreaded Phone Call

by myglassesaredirty



Series: It Had to be You [7]
Category: Psych
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Deleted Scenes, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, The Author Regrets Nothing, a CRIME i say, we never saw this in canon and that is a crime, you know that phone call everyone is terrified of? this is it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-07 14:57:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17368028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myglassesaredirty/pseuds/myglassesaredirty
Summary: She gets the phone call, and suddenly, it feels like all the air has been knocked from her lungs.Henry's been shot.





	That Dreaded Phone Call

**Author's Note:**

> I'm procrastinating a ton of assignments. I'm doing poorly in my math class. Will I care and change my ways? Absolutely not.

She’s proctoring a test for an old colleague of hers, listening intently to everything that takes place in the lecture hall: every shift of paper, every pencil scratch against the paper, every sniffle and cough, every tap of the eraser on the desk. She marks down the people who look suspicious.

 

Aside from the normal testing sounds, the classroom is dead silent. One kid in the back stares at the test, still open to the first page, and starts crying.

 

Maddy covers her mouth with her hand and averts her eyes. It shouldn’t be funny that this kid didn’t study at all, and that he probably stayed up all night drinking, but he just reminds her so much of Shawn that it’s quite amusing.

 

A cell phone rings, piercing through the otherwise quiet – save for the crying student – room.

 

Maddy sighs and stands, pulling her cardigan around her. “Alright,” she says, pacing the front of the room. “Whose phone?” She gestures for the guilty student to come forward and place it in her hand.

 

The students sit up and glance around the room, searching for the guilty party. The crying kid stopped weeping, wiped his nose, and now looks around with the rest of the class. Almost in unison, the class shakes their heads.

 

“No one’s going to confess?” She hums and shakes her head. “My husband was a police officer. I learned how to wait for someone to confess.”

 

One brave student at the front shyly raises his hand. “Ma’am?” he says. “I– I think the phone is yours. It’s not coming from this row or behind me.”

 

Maddy raises her eyebrows. “Oh, so you’re blaming the proctor now, are you?” She tsks her tongue and walks back to the desk. “I’m going to check my phone, and I’m sure I’ll find that –” she slips on her reading glasses “– it is not ringing.” She picks up her phone and her son’s profile picture stares up at her. She winces, turns around, and apologizes to the class. “I’m so sorry, class. My son must have forgotten that I told him not to call me right now.” She looks at the brave student. “I’m sorry that I snapped at you.”

 

The young boy nods his head. “It’s alright, ma’am. You didn’t know.”

 

Maddy declines the call and puts her phone on silent, falling back into her chair. Her phone starts vibrating, and Maddy picks it up, declines the call again, and drops her phone in her lap. Her phone vibrates again, this time with a text message from Shawn.

 

 **Shawn:** **_Mom, pick up._**

**Shawn:** **_Mom, please, this is really important._ **

**Shawn:** **_I’d rather not explain this over a text._ **

**Shawn:** **_It’s about Dad. Please pick up._ **

 

Maddy furrows her brow and sits up straighter. Shawn almost never uses correct grammar when texting her. The most recent time was when Yin kidnapped Abigail, and he texted her to make sure she was safe.

 

There is no way on hell that this is good news.

 

She stands up and looks at her class. “Um, class?” Her voice is shaking. Her voice is not supposed to shake. She’s supposed to be cool and collected in front of these college students. Maddy clears her throat and sniffs once. “There is an emergency involving my family, and I have to call my son back. I will be leaving the room.” She winces. “I don’t think I can find someone to proctor the rest of the test on such short notice, so I trust that you will be honest.” She points to the young man at the front of the room. “What’s your name?”

 

He glances around and determines that he’s talking to her. “Josh, ma’am.”

 

“Josh, when you’re finished with your test, would you please watch the class for me?” She exhales shakily. “I have a feeling this will not be a short phone call.”

 

Josh nods. “Yes, ma’am. Of course.”

 

“Thank you.” With that, she hurries out of the room, banging the door open on the way out. The phone buzzes in her hand, and she steps away from the door, pressing her back to the wall as she presses “accept.”

 

“Mom?” Shawn’s voice is shaky and tired.

 

“Shawn? What is it? You said there was something going on with your father?”

 

Shawn sighs, and Maddy immediately catches the way his breath catches. “Mom, I– I don’t know how to say this.”

 

Maddy presses her lips tightly together and looks up at the ceiling.  _ Please let Henry be okay, _ she prays. “Shawn, just tell me!”

 

Shawn’s voice is weak and defeated when he says, “Dad’s been shot, Mom.”

 

_ Shot. _

 

Time slows down for her, almost like it doesn’t exist. She slowly slides down the wall until her butt touches the floor, and it’s only after a minute has passed that she realizes she has yet to take a breath.

 

_ Henry’s been shot. _

 

“Oh, God,” she whispers, her voice somehow still trembling. “Oh my God.” She licks her lips, rests her head against the wall, and blinks back tears. “How bad?”

 

Shawn gulps, and it takes him a moment to respond. When he finally answers her, she can hear the tears that he’s been trying to hide. “He’s– he’s in surgery right now. He– he was shot in the chest, Mom, and I tried to get there sooner, really, I did, but I didn’t realize he was in danger until it was too late, and if I’d just been  _ 10 damn seconds faster,  _ he wouldn’t be here.”

 

Maddy shakes her head. “No.” Her voice is thick. “You can’t blame yourself, Shawn.”

 

“Dad might  _ die _ because I was too late.” He sighs again, and she just knows that he’s pulling a Henry – pressing his thumb and index finger into his eyes and pacing a hole into the tile. “How can I not blame myself?”

 

“You weren’t the one who shot him.”

 

Shawn laughs bitterly, and she hears a thud on the other end.  _ He must have fallen back against the wall, _ she thinks.

 

“You know what the worst part of it is, Mom?” He doesn’t wait for her to ask. He’s angry now, no longer scared. He’ll wait until Henry is out of surgery, and then his blood will boil and he’ll seek revenge.

 

Henry would do the exact same thing.

 

“The worst part is that I have no one to turn to. Usually, when I was this scared, I turned to Dad, and he’d always find a way to make me believe that everything was going to be okay. When I was little, Dad would hold me and sing me lullabies or give me ice cream. As I got older, he started giving me life advice or simply telling me that everything would be okay. But right now,  _ he’s _ the one I’m scared for, and he can’t reassure me.”

 

“You have Gus.”

 

“Yeah, well, Gus never had a loved one who faced danger every day.”

 

Maddy sniffles and rubs her nose. “You have Juliet.”

 

“Juliet’s dad is a con artist and her stepdad is a boring old businessman. She still doesn’t get it.  _ No one _ does. Only you do.”

 

Maddy closes her eyes. The memory of the bomb threat, though nearly forty years ago, is still fresh in her mind. “I know I do.” She presses her free hand to the wall and helps herself up. “I’m coming over.”

 

“No. Don’t come until– at least until we know how long he has, or how long his recovery will be.”

 

“That could be a  _ week, _ Shawn!”

 

“Please!” he shouts at her.

 

She blinks in surprise. Shawn has never shouted at her, even in his tantrum-riddled toddler years. He only ever shouted at Henry, and Maddy realizes with a pang that it was probably because he was mad at her but refused to take it out on her. “I’ll give you three days,” she says quietly. “Not a moment sooner. That’s my husband on the operating table.”

 

**

 

She heard all about Shawn’s escapade to catch Jerry Carp.

 

Surprisingly, Detective Lassiter told her. Not Juliet or Gus. It was Lassiter. He hung his head and admitted to assisting in Shawn’s dangerous activities.

 

Maddy’s hands shook in terror when she heard. She knew, logically, that Shawn was safe and he wouldn’t go after Carp anymore (especially considering the fact that Carp was dead), but just hearing that she could have lost both of the people she loves more than anything…

 

She grips Henry’s hand tighter and rests her forehead against his arm. He’s still asleep – has been sleeping since she arrived a couple of hours ago – but just the fact that she can hear him breathing and feel every twitch in his hand is reassuring. Henry’s alive, and so is Shawn.

 

Gus is watching Shawn like a hawk now. Like her, he knows that Shawn won’t pull any more stunts, but Shawn needs to rest, and he won’t sleep unless Gus mothers him into it. Maddy would, but someone needs to be with Henry, and she’d really rather it be her or Shawn who’s with him when he wakes up.

 

Maddy straightens and sniffs, recalling with a chuckle the young girl she almost bitch-slapped when she first arrived at the hospital. She knows that Henry’s dated around, but that doesn’t stop the flare of jealousy every time she sees someone hovering close to him (especially when Shawn said this girl made Henry uncomfortable. No one gets to do that to her husband). The girl left him alone when Maddy stormed into the hospital, knowing that there was no way she could win the fight against the woman who still loves Henry William Spencer, Jr.

 

Henry groans, and his eyelids flutter. Maddy leans forward and presses her lips together, reaching out to brush his hair but remembering a little too late that Henry  _ has _ none. She cups his cheek instead.

 

“Madeleine?” he croaks, turning his bleary eyes to her.

 

She nods. “How’d you know it was me?” she whispers, stroking her thumb across his cheekbone.

 

Henry tries to laugh but immediately stops when it feels like his chest might rip apart. “I’d know your hand anywhere, anytime.”

 

Maddy scoots her chair so that she can see him better. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

 

Henry licks his chapped lips. His tongue is dry, and Maddy reaches for his cup of water. “I’m glad that I’m fine, but Shawn…” he exhales shakily.

 

Maddy passes him his cup. “You should have seen him, Henry. He was so terrified for you.”

 

“Maybe he’ll get a taste of his own medicine. We’re just as worried when  _ he _ gets into some dangerous situation.”

 

Maddy nods and kisses Henry’s hand. “You promised me this would never happen again.”

 

Henry hums and sets his cup down. “I didn’t expect Jerry to turn out to be a dirty cop. We used to be best friends and partners.”

 

Maddy catches his half-lidded gaze. “You promised,” she whispers.

 

“That was twenty years ago, Maddy.”

 

She presses her lips together and shakes her head emphatically. “You don’t know how terrifying– I never knew if you were coming home at night, Henry.”

 

“Hey.” He squeezes her hand. “You should know by now: you can’t get rid of me that easy.”

 

Maddy offers him a watery smile. “I can’t imagine what I’d do if you died, Henry.”

 

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that for a while now, Maddy. I’m going to be just fine.”

 

Maddy nods slowly and stands, bending over to kiss him. Henry gently kisses her back, and she misses this, misses the way they always melded back together. When she pulls away, she tucks her hair behind her ear. “I love you, Henry, but you  _ need _ to stop getting yourself into trouble like this.”

 

Henry smiles broadly. “I love you, too, Mad. And I’m retired now. I’ll do some more fishing now.” He laughs, ignoring the way his chest wants to rip apart. “Did you meet Chelsea?”

 

Maddy’s face clouds over. “We will not mention her name.”

 

“You’re jealous!”

 

“I’m not!”

 

Henry leans his head against the pillow. “Oh my gosh, this is amazing. You are so jealous!”

 

“Am not!”

 

“Are so!”

 

She squeezes his hand. “What would you say if I  _ was _ jealous?”

 

Henry smiles at her. “I’d tell you that’s how I felt when you dated William. Except worse. I didn’t know if you were going to marry him.”

 

Maddy cups his cheek. “I never would have married him. I only married you.” She laughs softly. “Would you know it, sometimes I still call you my husband. Not my ex-husband. Just my husband.”

 

Henry tries to sit up, but at Maddy’s glare, he just relaxes into the pillows. “I’m sorry you had to worry, Madeleine.”

 

Maddy leans forward and kisses him again. “I’m always going to worry, Henry. Always. There’s nothing you can do to stop that.”

**Author's Note:**

> Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a comment below or go to my tumblr, @ my-glasses-are-dirty, and tell me what you think!


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